Serious question: doesn't the Ju in Judo refer more to "suppleness" and "subtlety" than to "gentle" or "soft"?

That is what my instructors (even the Japanese ones) tended to say. I remember a lot of "Ju means soft... well kind of. More like supple or yielding... but all of my body parts don't work properly from years of Judo... so, practice your ukemi so you don't get hurt as much." conversations.

Serious question: doesn't the Ju in Judo refer more to "suppleness" and "subtlety" than to "gentle" or "soft"?

That is what my instructors (even the Japanese ones) tended to say. I remember a lot of "Ju means soft... well kind of. More like supple or yielding... but all of my body parts don't work properly from years of Judo... so, practice your ukemi so you don't get hurt as much." conversations.

That kinda sums up my experiance with the ju discussion as well. That being said gentle way sounds more poetic so thats what generally gets thrown around.

Don't all jump on me about this one, but certain moves in Judo do indeed SEEM "soft." An example would be last night when I performed tsubame gaeshi while in randori and my opponent hit the ground with all the force of his own footswep.

does that count as a "soft" sort of move if i am literally using an opponents energy that way? Also, it was "hard" as hell to learn it to the point where I could pull if off in randori! Had to mess it up a million times to be able to get it even occasionally